Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Pay your respects to Lviv's great and good of yesteryear at the city's amazing
Lychakivske Cemetery
(
Click here
)
.
Join the Orthodox faithful for a pilgrimage to
Pochayiv Monastery
(
Click here
) to
find Ukraine's most devout atmosphere.
Take a turn around Lutsk's
old quarter
(
Click here
) for a blast from western
Ukraine's past.
Head uphill to
Kremenets Fortress
(
Click here
) for trip-stopping views of the
town's many churches.
Catch a
festival
(
Click here
)
in Lviv - not difficult as there's something happening
almost every day of the year.
History
Mongols overrunning Kyivan Rus in 1240 never made it as far west as the powerful
province of Galicia-Volynia. They did occasionally knock on its door, but the region was
largely left to enjoy self-rule under King Roman Mstyslavych, his son Danylo Halytsky
and his descendants.
This idyllic state was shattered in the 1340s when Polish troops invaded, but western
Ukraine never lost its taste for independence. Several centuries of Polish domination saw
the rise of a unique Ruthenian identity, which is the basis for much contemporary
Ukrainian nationalism. Many Galician
boyars
(nobles) - often sent from Poland, Ger-
many or Hungary - adopted the Polish language and Roman Catholicism. However, the
peasants, also known as Ruthenians, remained Orthodox. They were only persuaded to
join the new Ukrainian Catholic Church, also known as the Uniate Church, in 1596
(thereby acknowledging the pope's spiritual supremacy) because this church agreed to
retain Orthodox forms of worship. Other Ruthenians fled southeast to set up Cossack
communities.
In 1772 Galicia became part of the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire and to this day
western Ukrainians touchingly remember the Austrians as (relatively) liberal, tolerant
rulers. In other parts of the empire separatists suffered under the Austrian yoke, but in
Ukraine the Habsburgs allowed Ukrainian nationalism to re-emerge and that made them
good guys in this country. Western Ukraine even enjoyed a few days' independence as
the Habsburg Empire collapsed at the end of WWI, but it soon found itself again under
the dreaded Polish thumb.
Following the outbreak of WWII in September 1939, things went from bad to worse in
local eyes. The Red Army marched in and asserted Moscow's control over the region for
